We watched helplessly as water/sewage came gushing out of the basement toilet for roughly an hour yesterday evening, eventually reaching a depth of nearly a foot. Early on, the power went out - which was perhaps good in one respect, as it saved me from seeing what I was slogging around in trying to get various items to higher ground.
Today I have been packing up dry books and papers and carrying them up two floors to a spare room upstairs. It's excellent exercise. ... I am relieved that my computer and hard drives are all right and that I was able to rescue all of my 2004 manuscript folders and files.
Our house was merely one blip on the map, as the entire Greater Toronto Area experienced serious flooding.
5 comments:
So sorry to hear about this, Allan. I hope that you and Laura are able to get your lives back in order quickly! :-(
Ah man, what a hassle. Sorry to hear it.
Also sorry to see your copy of The Talisman underwater!
Also sorry to see your copy of The Talisman underwater!
Good eyes! That was actually a second used copy floating by! In my haunting of thrift shops for the currently-paused King Reading Project, I had accumulated some doubles, which were in a bag on the floor. No real loss there, though several dozen other books did get ruined.
So I found out something last night that was totally waterlogged - my Boston and New York newspapers from October 2004. Why they were where they were, I cannot say, but fucking christ ...
I haven't looked at them more than once in 8 years, but still ... so I lugged them out to the garage last night and went to bed. Thankfully, most of my other 2004 stuff was high up on shelves.
It was a sunny hot day today and I suddenly had the idea to lay them out on the grass in the back yard in the sun -- and they are actually drying!!!! No longer in mint condition, certainly, but dry and readable. I think I did maybe five days this afternoon - ALCS games! loved those NY tabloids! - and I hope for another sunny day tomorrow. If it stays sunny, I should be able to get through most of them this weekend - maybe.
Meanwhile, the house smells like mold and we still have no hot water. Fuck you, feet-dragging landlord.
Three sunny days! Done drying out maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the newspapers.
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